Pruning at Petit-Village

On the eve of the Christmas period, the vineyards can seem bleak and cold, but this time of year has its own charm, and of course, the cycle of life in the vineyard continues. At Petit-Village this morning, where the pruning is under way. This is one of the toughest tasks in the vineyard, taking place as it does in the cold and damp of winter. Here is a view of one the merlot parcels at Petit-Village.

On the left you see young vine merlots that have not yet been pruned, on the right old vine merlot that have just been pruned in the Guyot Simple method.

Here is a close up of a young merlot vine, just before pruning.

And here is a close up of an old merlot vine that has just been pruned, though not yet tied up.

After a tour of the vineyard, we tasted the wines of 2009 in the Petit-Village tasting room. For the formal blending sessions of Petit-Village Stéphane Derenoncourt, our consultant will be with us with members of his team. But today it was Daniel Llose, Serge Ley, technical director of Petit-Village, and myself. It was a profoundly exciting tasting. A lot has happened at Petit-Village in recent years, including a major replanting of part of the vineyard, and a total reconstruction of the winery facilities. Stéphane Derenoncourt joined us as consultant in 2006, the new winery became operational in 2007, and the results have begun to show in the wines of the last few years.

The 2009 wines that we tasted this morning are simply outstanding, and may be the best Petit-Village we have ever made, with wonderful intensity of fruit, freshness, volume and harmony. We are looking forward to showing this wine in the spring tastings next year!

Here is a picture of Daniel LLose and me feeling cheerful in the Petit-Village tasting room.

Next post will probably be in January. In the meantime I wish you a very Happy Christmas And New Year and I hope that you will open some great bottles with friends and family.

One thought on “Pruning at Petit-Village”

How do you time and organise the pruning? Do you start at one side of a site in December and just work across to the other, then on to the next site or go variety by variety, old then new vines, or some other system. Also, is there any plot/variety that you prune later, to postpone budburst, or to make anything else happen or not. I suppose I’m asking for Pichon, but would be interested to hear about Suduiraut as well. From snowy Gloucestershire.